Chapter 2 - THE STRANGER WHO CAME BACK FOR HER
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At 11:43 that night, Delia Marsh stood outside the Copper Lantern with rainwater running down the back of her uniform and three dollars left to her name.
She should have gone home.
Her grandmother would be waiting. Her brother, Owen, had a spelling test in the morning, and she'd promised to quiz him one more time.
Instead, she stared through the window at the drawer where Wade had hidden her mother's photograph.
It wasn't a valuable photograph.
The frame cost six dollars at a thrift store.
The picture showed her mother, Evelyn Marsh, standing beside the Copper Lantern's original owner on the day the bar opened twenty-two years earlier.
Evelyn had been smiling, holding a tray of glasses, her red hair falling over one shoulder.
When Delia was little, her mother used to point at that photograph and say, “Remember, sweetheart, there's always a story behind the person carrying the tray.”
After Evelyn died, Delia asked Wade to leave the picture on the wall.
He'd agreed.
Now it was gone.
And something about the way he removed it made her stomach twist.
She approached the front entrance.
The door was locked.
Wade noticed her through the glass and smiled.
Then he switched off the lights.
Delia pressed her lips together.
“Keep it tonight,” she whispered. “I'm getting it back.”
She turned toward the street.
A black SUV stopped at the curb.
For one frightening second, she thought Wade had called someone to intimidate her.
The passenger door opened.
A tall man in a dark overcoat stepped into the rain.
“Miss Marsh?”
She stopped.
“Yes?”
“My name is Gabriel Torres. I'm here on behalf of the gentleman whose check you paid.”
Delia folded her arms.
“Did he forget something else?”
Gabriel glanced at her soaked uniform.
“He asked me to make sure you got home safely.”
“That's unnecessary.”
“He thought you might say that.”
“Then he should have listened to himself.”
To Gabriel's credit, he didn't argue.
He simply held out a folded umbrella.
“He also asked me to return this.”
Inside the umbrella's strap was a small envelope.
Delia opened it.
Thirty-five dollars.
Exactly.
She stared.
“How did he get this?”
Gabriel looked uncomfortable.
“He borrowed it from me.”
Despite everything, she almost laughed.
“The rich-looking stranger borrowed thirty-five dollars?”
“Yes, ma'am.”
“He could have done that at the bar.”
Gabriel hesitated.
“He wasn't answering his calls tonight.”
“Why?”
“I can't discuss his private circumstances.”
Delia closed the envelope.
“Then tell him his bill is paid. He doesn't owe me anything.”
She handed the money back.
Gabriel stared.
“Miss Marsh—”
“Goodnight.”
She walked into the rain.
He called after her.
“Please take the umbrella!”
She turned.
For a moment, they looked at each other.
Then she took it.
“Fine. But only because my shoes are already ruined.”
Gabriel smiled faintly.
“Understood.”
Inside the SUV, Adrian Moretti watched Delia disappear around the corner.
He had spent two hours sitting in the Copper Lantern because he needed somewhere nobody recognized him.
An hour earlier, he'd discovered that his own cousin had arranged a meeting without his permission, used his private vehicle, and left him stranded as part of a dispute that had nearly turned violent.
Adrian had walked away from that confrontation rather than let it become another bloodbath.
He'd entered the nearest bar.
Then forgotten that his wallet and phone were inside the abandoned car.
It should have been an inconvenience.
Nothing more.
But the owner humiliated him, strangers laughed, and a young woman who clearly couldn't afford the gesture paid his bill.
Gabriel sat behind the wheel.
“Boss, she refused the money.”
Adrian looked toward the street.
“I saw.”
“What should we do?”
“Nothing to her.”
Gabriel glanced at him.
“She was fired.”
Adrian turned sharply.
“What?”
“After you left. The manager dismissed her.”
Adrian stared at the darkened bar.
“Because she paid?”
“That's what it appears.”
Something in his expression hardened.
“Find out who owns the Copper Lantern.”
Gabriel nodded.
“And Gabriel?”
“Yes?”
“Don't frighten her. I mean that.”
Delia arrived home at midnight.
The apartment above the laundromat smelled of detergent, old carpeting, and the chicken soup her grandmother had made for dinner.
Her nine-year-old brother Owen was asleep on the couch with a comic book over his face.
Grandma Rose sat in the kitchen, knitting beneath a yellow lamp.
She looked up.
“Delia?”
“Hi, Grandma.”
Rose studied the wet uniform.
“Bad shift?”
Delia forced a smile.
“Interesting one.”
“Did you eat?”
“Not hungry.”
Rose's expression softened.
“That wasn't my question.”
Delia sat down.
Then told her everything.
The stranger.
The bill.
The humiliation.
Being fired.
The photograph.
When she finished, Rose was completely still.
“Wade took Evelyn's picture down?”
Delia nodded.
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
Rose looked toward the dark window.
For a moment, she seemed twenty years older.
Then she whispered, “Your mother warned me that would happen someday.”
Delia stared.
“What?”
May you like
Rose put down her knitting.
“Delia, there's something about the Copper Lantern your mother never wanted you to know.”
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